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“We are at our strongest when we are three.”
Fuck their unum onem inem, or whatever it was, mumbo jumbo.
Got her hands sliced open for his ass. She rubbed her palms. That shit hurt.
Everything had been fine, though. In fact, it was magical and wonderful until…she got up to dance with Matthew and…
He was talking to Cassie.
God, maybe he didn’t love her. Maybe he really wanted to be with Cassie, he just couldn’t because of their stupid fucking rules. Kellan was tethered to Arien for life now, in every possible way. Does he resent me for it?
Her face in a throw pillow, she didn’t even realize she was sobbing until she heard him walk into the room. Sniffling, she lifted her head. “Why?”
He just stood there.
“Why did you make me love you if you didn’t really want me?”
“Is that what you think? ’Cause you got it all twisted, baby cakes.” Raking his fingers back through his hair, Kellan let out a harsh breath. “I can’t do this.”
And he stormed out.
In spring, when the snow melts and the grass begins to grow, the cows move up on the mountains for grazing. Then in the fall, they’re taken back down to winter in the valley, where they’re provided shelter and supplemented with hay. Wild animals will naturally do this all on their own, but the domestic stock on the ranch had to be rounded up and herded to go where they needed to be.
This time of year, with summer near its end, the cattle were dispersed over many square miles of mountain and forest. Often tucked away in remote woodland clearings, it could take days, sometimes weeks, of hard riding through trackless wilderness to find them all.
It takes a dozen men on horseback to move three thousand head of cattle.
Over the coming weeks, they’d be rounding up close to ten times that number.
Kellan hated to leave her. He would have hated it any time, but especially now. Married only three days when he left, Arien was back home with Tanner and his dad while he was stuck out here chasing after cows.
Maybe it was for the best. Probably was. He wasn’t in a good frame of mind to be around folks. Particularly his wife.
But then he remembered the look on her beautiful face. Her tear-stained cheeks. She was crying, as plaintively as when her mama died, and that was fucking with his head. It wasn’t like Arien to turn on the waterworks as some girls were known to do. Kellan hurt her heart and he knew it. Even worse, he meant to.
What if he was wrong and Cassie was full of shit? Then Arien should never forgive him, because dammit, he wouldn’t.
And if he was right, perhaps he only had himself to blame. He should’ve tried harder. Opened up to her sooner. He didn’t possess flowery words like his brother. Kellan was who he was. Made no apologies for it, either. He showed her he loved her in other ways. At least he thought he did.
So yeah, it was best he was here, away from her, where he could clear his head and think. Figure out his shit.
“One more night.” Wiping sweat off his brow, Griffin pulled up alongside him. “Can’t wait to be back home in my bed.”
Shut the hell up.
“You whinin’ already, Archer?”
This was just the first roundup of many. They’d go home for a couple days, then ride out again. And again. And again. The process would be repeated until the count was right and all the animals had been found.
“Can’t tell me you ain’t dyin’ to get back to your wife, too.”
“Don’t you worry ’bout me none.” He lashed out, “Take care of your own damn wife.”
“What the fuck’s up your ass?” Griffin side-eyed him, then smirked. “And Shiloh ain’t got no complaints. We’re havin’ a baby come spring. Just found out.”
“I heard.” Congrats and all that shit. “And what about Cassie?”
“Not sure what to do about her.”
